The short answer

Yes, you should have a website, even if your Facebook page is busy. But it can be small, and it does not replace Facebook.

A Facebook page is a good place to talk to people who already know you. A website is the place you own, where anyone who searches for what you do can find the plain facts: what you do, where, when, and how to reach you. Most small businesses do best with both, and the website does not have to be big or expensive to earn its place.

If your Facebook page is all you have today, you are not doing anything wrong. It is a fine place to start. This page is about when it stops being enough.

What a Facebook page does well

Be fair to it. A page is good at:

  • Staying in touch with people who already follow you. Photos of finished jobs, a quick announcement, a holiday closure.
  • Being free and fast to set up. You can have one tonight.
  • Showing that you are real. Recent posts and reviews tell people you are still in business.
  • Letting customers message you in a place they already use.

None of that goes away when you add a website. You use Facebook for what it is good at, and let the website cover the gaps.

Where a Facebook page falls short

You do not own it. The page lives on someone else's platform. They can change the rules, change what people see, change the design, or lock the account, and you get a notice, not a vote. If the page disappears one day, so does your phone number, your photos, and your customers' reviews, unless you saved them somewhere else.

Not everyone is on Facebook, or wants to sign in. Some people do not have an account. Some will not make one just to read your hours. If they hit a wall asking them to log in, a lot of them will simply go to the next business.

You have little say in how it looks. Every page has the same layout. You cannot put your prices, your service area, and your best work in the order that suits you, and you cannot make it feel like your business.

Information gets buried. A page is a stream of posts. Your hours, your service area and the answer to "do you do X?" end up three months down the feed, or in a comment. A website puts them where people look first.

It is hard to send people somewhere useful. On your truck, your invoices, your business card, a web address that goes to a clear page looks professional and is easy to remember.

You cannot build your own list from it. A website lets you collect an email address or a phone number, on your terms, so you can reach customers whether or not a platform decides to show your post.

What a website gives you

A basic website does a handful of jobs that a page cannot:

  • Gets found when people search. When someone types what they need and where they are, a website is built to show up. A Facebook page sometimes does, but you have far less control over it.
  • Answers the questions before the phone rings. Services, area, hours, how it works, what to expect.
  • Takes the next step. A button to call, a form to request a quote or a visit, a way to book.
  • Looks the same to everyone, on any phone, with or without an account.
  • Belongs to you. Your name, your address, your content. You can move it and take it with you.

It does not have to be big

This is where many owners get stuck. They picture a huge, expensive project. It does not have to be.

A good small business site is often a handful of pages:

  1. Home: what you do, who it is for, where, and how to reach you, all above the fold.
  2. Services: what you offer, in plain words.
  3. About: who you are, with a real photo. People hire people.
  4. Contact: phone, email, service area, hours, and a simple form.
  5. Optional: a page of finished work or reviews, if you have photos you are proud of.

That is enough to beat having nothing, and you can add to it later. A small site that is clear and kept up to date is worth more than a big one nobody maintains.

Check your Facebook page today

Whether or not you build a site, take ten minutes and check:

  • Are your phone number, hours and service area correct?
  • Is the "About" section filled in, in plain words, not left blank?
  • Does your profile photo or logo look like your business and not like something from five years ago?
  • Can you reply to messages quickly? A page that never answers looks worse than no page.
  • Do you have a copy of your photos and reviews somewhere else? Keep your own backup.

Signs you are ready for a website

You probably want one if:

  • People ask for it. Customers say "do you have a website?" or "send me a link."
  • Some customers cannot find you. They searched, and you did not come up.
  • You answer the same questions again and again.
  • You want to look established, to bigger customers, to a property manager, to a business that will not hire a company with only a social media page.
  • You want to be in control of what people see, and not at the mercy of a feed.

When you can wait

I would tell you it can wait if:

  • You are brand new and still working out what you offer. Start on Facebook, then build the site once you know what you want to say.
  • Every customer comes from word of mouth, you are already full, and you do not want more.
  • You have no time to keep it up. A site that is wrong is worse than none. Start with something so small you can keep it right.

If you do build one

A few simple rules save a lot of pain:

  • Buy your own domain name, in your own name. That is the web address, like yourbusiness.com. It should be registered to you, not to whoever built the site, so it can never be held hostage.
  • Make sure you can log in to everything. You should have the keys to your own site.
  • Put your phone number at the top of every page, where a thumb can tap it.
  • Check it on your phone first. Most people will see it there.
  • Keep Facebook going, and put your web address on the page, so each one sends people to the other.
  • Ask who updates it, and what it costs, before you start. A site is not a one-time thing.

What to do next

Start with the ten-minute check on your Facebook page. Then write down the five things you wish a stranger knew about your business in the first ten seconds. That list is the start of your website.

If you want a second pair of eyes, tell me what you have now and what you need it to do. I will tell you plainly whether a small site is worth it for you right now, or whether your page is enough for the moment. Use the button below to start that conversation.